Henley Women's Regatta, often abbreviated to "HWR" or "Women's Henley", is a rowing regatta held at Henley-on-Thames, England. Chris Aistrop and Rosemary Mayglothling were jointly responsible for setting up the Regatta in June 1988 and Aistrop was the first chairman.[1]
The first regatta was held in 1988, as a response to the absence of women's events at Henley Royal Regatta at the time. While Henley Royal Regatta now offers eight women's events, Women's Henley has continued to build and expand. Henley Women's Regatta now lasts three full days, and includes time trials for over-subscribed events.
Henley Women's Regatta is held on the Thames River at Henley, using the same, but shortened, boomed course as Henley Royal (the shorter course is due to Environment Agency safety restrictions and the short intervals between races at HWR). The Henley Women's Regatta course runs for 1,500m in comparison with Henley Royal's 2112m. The Henley Women's Regatta course begins at the top of Temple Island and has its finish line in front of the Remenham Club, where the Friends of Henley Women's Regatta enclosure (the 'Chairman's Enclosure') is located. It takes place over a Friday, Saturday and Sunday in mid to late June.
In 2004 the regatta has offered Intermediate, Senior and Elite categories instead of college, Club and Open. Junior categories are also offered. In 2011 the regatta also began to offer Adaptive events.On 1 December 2017 HWR announced that the Competition Structure events would be altered for the 2018 regatta to recategorise the events into Championship, Aspirational, Development, Junior, Junior under 16, and Para Rowing. The 2023 Regatta is due to take place from Friday 16 to Sunday 18 June.
The current regatta chair is Naomi Ashcroft and the joint patrons of the regatta are Sir Steven Redgrave and Lady Redgrave.
On 1 December 2017, HWR announced that the competition structure would be altered for 2018 as follows: